Furthering The Discussion

As long as they keep talking, I promise to keep posting them. What and whom? Once again, John Batchelor discusses current events in Ukraine and Russia with renowned Russia expert, Professor Stephen F. Cohen.

There's not a lot that is new this week but John and Stephen do cover:

last Sunday's election results

the fighting in Eastern Ukraine

the continuing sanctions

Russia's strategy regarding the troop pullback and stand-down

When you have the time, please give it a listen so that on remain up-to-date on these ongoing events and please be sure to search for a local affiliate for The John Batchelor Show by clicking here: http://johnbatchelorshow.com

Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): Gold broke below support at $1,284/oz yesterday and quickly fell to nearly $1,265/oz. Overnight, gold in Singapore fell to nearly $1,260/oz prior to a slight bounce back to $1,266/oz. Better than expected U.S. economic data and slightly lower official Chinese demand were cited as reasons for the move lower but it appeared more computer and technical driven as the price falls came before the U.S. economic data and Chinese demand figures were released. Technically, gold is vulnerable to a further fall to the double bottom between $1,180/oz and $1,200/oz. The 14-day relative-strength index fell to 32.9 yesterday, the lowest since December, and near the level of 30 that suggests a potential rebound to technical analysts. Gold has rebounded 5.2% this year even after yesterday’s 2% price fall and remains one of the best performing assets so far in 2014. The price weakness came despite continuing bullish developments for the gold market. Yesterday came news of China launching a new physical Global Gold Exchange and President Putin of Russia again affirmed how Russia values its gold reserves.

Harvey: Today again for the 7th straight day, our bankers decided it was necessary to whack gold. However silver withheld the attack and finished up by 2 cents. GLD saw no change in their inventory, after yesterday's huge gain and stands at 758.28 tonnes. SLV saw no change in silver inventory and stands at 10,284.40 tonnes. The big news today is the huge drop in bond yields throughout the globe. In China, the yuan falls to 19 month lows with news of a huge increase in Chinese bad debt. France reports a huge hole in the budget as instead of raising 30 billion euros from their increase in taxes, only 16 billion euros were received from French citizens. All GOFO rates are positive and increasing.

Chris Powell (GATA): Recent long periods of backwardation in gold show that central banks are losing their battle against gold as they did when the original London Gold Pool collapsed in 1968, GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk says tonight. "That the gold market has been in backwardation on so many occasions, and in many cases remained in backwardation for extended periods, just shows how unhealthy the market has traded because of paper manipulation," Turk says.

Chris Powell: Financial letter writer Mark Hulbert, commenting today for MarketWatch.com, says he knows what's dragging the gold price down -- unfavorable sentiment among other financial letter writers and unfavorable charts. It's no matter to Hurlburt that by their own admission central banks are trading in the gold market "nearly every day," presumably for policy purposes rather than for fun competitions among their foreign exchange desks, nor that, as noted by GATA consultant Rob Kirby of Kirby Analytics in Toronto, the U.S. government's broker, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., maintains trillions of dollars' worth of interest rate derivatives that cannot possibly be hedged, cannot be anything other than government intervention in the bond markets. No, to hear Hurlburt tell it, it's all lousy sentiment and charts -- as if that surreptitious trading by central banks might not be creating the lousy sentiment and charts.

Chris Powell: The audit of its gold reserves vaulted at the Bank of England that last week was reported being planned by the Austrian central bank has been conducted and was part of a routine series of audits by the bank and its results will not be made public, a bank spokesman said today. The bank spokesman, Christian Gutlederer, commented in response to an inquiry by the German freelance financial journalist Lars Schall. In addition to inquiring about the gold audit, Schall asked if the Austrian central bank would be publishing a list of the serial numbers of its gold bars, but the bank spokesman did not acknowledge the question. Like most central banks, the Austrian central bank has a history of refusing to answer questions involving its gold reserves. Schall has tried with the bank before.

Reuters: shortly after Russia and China announced their historic gas deal, Vladimit Putin said at the recent International Economic Forum, that Russia need to ensure its gold and currency reserves are secure. And not just Russia: China too. Because apparently when it comes to speaking for "hard" monetary policy, Putin is now authorized to speak for both nations. From Reuters: "For us (Russia and China) it is important to deposit those (gold and currency reserves) in a rational and secure way," he said. "And we together need to think of how to do that keeping in mind the uneasy situation in the global economy." Putin also said China and Russia will consider further steps to shift to use of national currencies in bilateral transactions.

Bill Holter: There is no way that this one single trader could have possibly sold $50 billion (40 million ounces) in just two trading days. If this were the case and the market was "honest", any single trader that went that short would have been sniffed (squeezed) out in an epic "come to Jesus" moment by market participants. Any single trader that sold or shorted 1/2 of global gold production would have the task of eventually covering that position while a bunch of sharks circled to make this an impossibility without losing an equal amount of flesh. It also stands to reason that if these bursts of selling were not "officially" sanctioned, they would have been uncovered by the week's end.

Zero Hedge: Delinquent loans in China are a problem... and a growing one. It seems that news is finally starting to filter to a mainstream audience as Bloomberg reports that China’s biggest banks are poised to report the highest proportion of bad debts since 2009 after late payments on loans surged to a five-year high, indicating borrowers are struggling amid an economic slowdown.As S&P warns,"overdue loans are a leading indicator of asset-quality deterioration and show the rising liquidity constraints among borrowers... and the disturbing thing is the end is nowhere in sight." These numbers tell us that it does not appear that China can bear a very large increase in debt, and that the idea that the government can simply “bail out the financial sector” is erroneous, or at least, a stretch. China does not have the luxury of the United States, which can spend excessively because foreign countries continue to buy U.S. government debt.

My comments-With actions like these, how will the west regain the trust of its citizens.Bloody shameful. I had a relative die at the Battle of Vimy Ridge.At the time the very least those soldiers were afforded, along with their families, respect, honor, a proper military burial, or civilian depending..Read this and see if you agree. The whole world has gone mad.

Behold Canada and America. One country supports the efforts of a U.S. Special Forces soldier's widow to hold accountable the jihadist who killed her husband and the father of her two young children. The other country helped free that jihadist from Guantanamo Bay in a shady deal that appeased his far-left allies.

Guess which side President Obama's on.

The widow is Tabitha Speer. Her children are Taryn and Tanner. Their husband and father was an American hero: Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, a 28-year-old medic with the U.S. Special Forces. As I reported in my syndicated column 11 years ago, Speer died in Afghanistan during an ambush by al-Qaida operatives. The remorseless Islamic zealot who lobbed the fatal grenade that killed Speer in 2002: 15-year-old Omar Khadr.

Bleeding-heart activists painted Khadr as a brainwashed "child" soldier — while ignoring Speer's then 3-year-old daughter and 11-month-old son left fatherless in the name of Allah. Khadr knew exactly what he was doing: targeting Americans for murder. Sergeant First Class Layne Morris of South Jordan, Utah, was there. He lost his right eye in the ambush and said after the attack: "That was a trained al-Qaida who wanted to make his last act on Earth the killing of an American."

The FBI called Khadr, who was detained at Gitmo in November 2002, "cold and callous." Terrorist videos showed the teen smiling as he rigged explosives in preparation for the fight. The thought of killing our soldiers brightened his day, he said. One of his leaders exulted on tape as they readied their bombs and grenades: "Allah willing, we will get a good number of Americans."

Confused, innocent "child" of upstanding peace-seekers? Bull. Following Khadr's capture, I should remind you, his sister said the death of Speer was no "big deal". His mother declared she would rather see her sons at al-Qaida training camps than "be on drugs or having some homosexual relation." One brother openly admitted: "We are an al-Qaida family." And another brother stated: "Every Muslim dreams of being a shahid (martyr) for Islam."

Last week, as politicians paid lip service to honoring those who have served and sacrificed, Tabitha Speer and Morris were doing what they could to uphold honor and fight for real justice for the fallen. They filed a civil suit against Canadian-born Khadr, who had pleaded guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty and guilty in 2010 to five war crimes including murder and attempted murder related to the ambush in Afghanistan.

There is a precedent for such courtroom accountability: Mrs. Speer and Morris successfully sued the estate of Khadr's jihadi father and al-Qaida financier Ahmed Said Khadr. The terrorist patriarch died in a gun battle near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in 2003, so a jury's $100 million civil award to Khadr's victims has never been collected.

But it did send a message. When necessary, American civilians will do the job their leaders won't do: pursue jihadist murderers whenever and wherever they can, and keep the legacies of our heroes in uniform alive. The new suit comes as coddled leftwing cause celebre Omar Khadr, now 27, prepares to sue the Canadian government for $20 million in civil rights damages.

The conservative Canadian government lent its public support to the Speer family and to Morris on the eve of Memorial Day weekend. "Our government supports the efforts of Tabitha Speer and fellow soldiers to receive compensation for their horrible loss." Good for them.

How about America's leaders? AWOL. The reason Khadr is in Canada, in case you didn't know, is that Obama freed Khadr from Gitmo after intense lobbying from the "compassionate" social justice crowd. He was repatriated to Canada just weeks before America's November 2012 election. Leading the pressure campaign on Obama: the Center for Constitutional Rights, which also crusaded for the release of former Gitmo jihadist Abu Sufian bin Qumu, a primary suspect in the Benghazi consulate attacks.

Canadian conservative writer and activist Ezra Levant, who has advocated tirelessly for the Speers and for other victims of jihad, noted recently that the liberal Canadian press has mentioned the Speer children a scant six times as Khadr milks leftist sympathies.

But what does it say when the Canadian government shows more compassion for the fatherless children of a U.S. soldier than their own government? A search for the Speer children on the White House website yielded: "No results."

Thank you for the post and for still hanging around here at least in the cheap seats, however I would greatly appreciate any update from your neck of the woods, as to what the local sentiment is currently with respect to stacking Hard Money gold and silver Coin, and what premiums are being charged and your Local Coin Shops. Cheers, Rex

The value of every fiat currency in the world is set relative to the USD

How much is a Russian Ruble worth? x Rubles = 1 USD

How much is the Chinese Yuan worth? x Yuan = 1 USD

How much is the Mexican Peso worth? x Pesos = 1 USD

...

...

Similarly, any trade between China and Russia using only their own currencies, STILL uses the USD equivalents of those currencies. As much as they HATE it, that's the way it is.

The USD is the benchmark, it does not move.

1 USD is always worth 1 USD

All other currencies change in value relative to the USD.

Then what is all the recent talk of De-dollarization, and how China and Russia are some decade planning to trade in just their own currencies?? Answer: Just that, "talk". It's communist "we hate the U.S.A. hot air". "hype", that a lot of panicky people have gotten all caught up in it.

King Dollar is the benchmark, it does not move. Any trade in any currency or currencies is still a USD valued transaction as ALL currencies are valued relative to the USD.

The USD Index is a purposefully misleading cumulative index of other currencies that are all valued relative to the USD.

The bankers like to have a chart that makes the system appear to be in control of the value of the USD. But, as much as the bankers also HATE IT that the USD is the super-power fiat by which all the others are valued... that's how it goes.

All the Russia+China=Love noise, is just noise. In the world of currencies, King Dollar is still 100%on the throne.

I presume you can actually read, and thus not a complete Moron, so what part of the word "Note" (ie IOU) at the top of ALL "Currency" do you not comprehend? Ergo, such are properly referred to as "Dollar Bills" or otherwise known as "Dollar/s" OWED!

On December 23, 1913, America changed forever. That fateful Tuesday, Congress passed The Federal Reserve Act. This act (obviously) created the Federal Reserve, which has been manipulating our economy ever since. Since then, the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power. And all signs point to a continued downward trend that could result in the loss of another 95% of the dollar’s value. King dollar moves.

Do you see the same trend with the Yuan, the Ruble, or another fiat currency? Sooner or later they all die, all fiat cease to be used in trade and a new one is born. 700 fiat currencies, some king, (Brit's Pound and Spain's Peso), and some not, all have failed, due to human nature, greed.

Your comment of "1 USD is always worth 1 USD" is and is not true. I have a silver dollar made in 1881. Still think its worth a dollar? I wouldn't sell it for less than a couple hundred. On the other hand, look at Mexico's Peso, devalued by dropping the last 2 zeros in the 1980's. Sounds similar to the USD since December 23, 1913. Many economies have crashed an failed, read Rogoff and Carmen's "This Time Is Different" research paper on 66 failed economies published in April 2008, before the last crash.

Your comment: All other currencies change in value relative to the USD.

My comment: The USD changes in value relative to all other currencies.

Both comments are correct, thanks (manipulated) FX market. Look at the SDR's at the IMF, or better yet, look at the USDX. Try buying that boat load of Japan's electronics at last years dollar's value. Or try buying those new foreign made goods at yesterday's dollar price. If you are in Euro land, its all the Euro, (and their 10,000 tons of Au); after all its worth more than the US dollar. Or in England, the Brit's Pound is king. It's all relative my friend.

Yes, the carry trade exists for the moment in USD, (thank you Petro dollar), but is failing quickly. In fact YOY increase of the Yuan carry trade is up 200%.

The worlds next currency king is going to be King Yuan. Why? Who is buying all the land, goods and commodities, including gold, they can lay their hands on? Its not the US, or being purchased in 'King Dollars'. So, do your grandchildren a favor, teach them Mandarin and hold on for the coming change. Its going to be a rough one as 'King Dollar' dies its overdue death.

I have been trying to wrap my brain around exactly what a US federal reserve note is.

If I hold a silver dollar in my hand, I have a commodity. I have the real thing, not a promise for someone else to give me the thing.

The gold and silver certificates of pre 1965 were promises that the US government-FED who printed them would give me silver or gold if I brought one in and demanded it. But the current FRN is an ambiguous, generic promise that somebody else, somewhere, owes me something valuable.

If I hold a FRN in my hand, it is a general, undefined IOU that means somebody owes me something, but that somebody is not the FED who created the note.

But if I go to the bank as we create a contract for a house purchase, the bank holds a note with my guarantee that I will trade something of value to redeem that note. the bank can then trade it to someone else (another financial institution) in return for something of value--undefined FRNs

Somewhere the process escapes my logical grasp

IN this current fiat system, the FED prints these notes at will that promise that somebody else, not the FED, must give me something of value in return when I present the note. What skin does the FED or he US government have in this scheme? None, as far as I can see. But they sure love to collect the interest as we use their notes. And the US government sure loves inflation to slowly erase this debt as time passes.

Seriously, WTF has been going on for decades now? If I need to pay a debt, I have to work my arse off to earn something of value that my debt issuer will accept in return. But the FED can just create this stuff with a few keystrokes and gives it to the primary dealer banks in trade for US treasuries that the taxpayers will have to pay something of value to redeem upon maturity.

And how long do I think this Keynesian dreamlike wonderland of socially constructed reality can continue?

Just thinking out loud this morning as I read news about the former pope wanted for murder, an unreported war in Ukraine, John Kerry trying to shame Snowden into giving himself up for prosecution for leaking Kerry's et al, crimes, and a 20K acre forest fire still burning near my home.

yep, it is and will continue to perched upon the reserve currency throne as long as the dollar controls the deadliest military machine on the planet, not to difficult to figure this one out. Those who doubt this and think the dollar is doomed just because trillions of electronic dollars are created out of nothingness but thin every year are on some kind of narcotic, it just ain't happening. until the wealth and prosperity milking machines of the progressive left's crime syndicates have sucked up every last drop of wealth from American middle class and have prepared the fields of totally dependent world sheeple for their NWO. Both Russia and China know this and in the back offices and bunkers of all the other little want to be nation states dependent on the dollar around the world who in the end will still covertly place their bets on American Military machine that has always held fast onto who's left standing when the smoke dust, and chaos clears well enough to get a view, its just the way it is.

Turd Ferguson joins us today for an analysis of recent world events. From the announced disbanding of the London Silver Fix to the unfettered Fed money printing, to China’s insatiable appetite for gold, to China’s confrontations with Japan and Vietnam and other countries, the New World Order is taking shape and America is conspicuous by it’s absence. And so is the dollar.What will a declining world power do to prolong it’s power? That remains to be seen.[Read more...]

I keep one of those FRN's in my wallet along with an old silver certificate. Not sure how to post the images of each & don't have time, but it is truly the most powerful way for me to teach someone about real money.

Failed to write in my haste...Edit to add...I try to explain that a note is a debt, someone holds that note, like a mortgage & expects to be paid back...Who holds the note? Who has to pay it back? It's impossible & will not be paid back. We understand this, but we also know most do not understand.

From my corner of the world demand seems high although i have not purchased physical in some time.As you may be aware my stack average is at $600.00 USD.Because of my belief in a pog south $1250 it is not my intention to purchase at this moment.

That being the case, here is what i have observed.

I personally shop at Commerzbank , multiple choices , plenty of branches.
You have to order in advance, it takes approximately 4 days, i think it comes local from Frankfurt. You will be asked to leave 15% the price of your purchase in deposit when you place your order, you don't need to be a customer and they don't need your passport when you place the order, they require it when you pick it up.
I have ordered numerous times, Krugerrands, Maple Leafs, American Eagles, Philharmonics, Sovereigns and some others, and Gold bars. No silver.
Prices are fair for Krugerrands, Maples and Eagles,sorely unfair for Sovereigns. They charge 12.60 EURO for every order, and the minimum order is 1000 EURO. Sometimes the staff do not speak English.This has presented a problem when not accompanied by my wife, then again other times i have managed.

This information was accurate as of April when i last visited,i wish to be prepared for the buying opportunity of a life time.

If you have a basic command of German you will find this site useful. I monitor it daily.

That is a point worth mentioning, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Although i have shopped online for pm's in the past,before 2005, i much prefer the shiny feel of the metal in my hand.With several defaults of online retailers in the fore front of my thoughts, and my major trust issues, i'd rather take possession personally.

One other point that is often in my mind in the case of non delivery, recourse. My due diligence suggests my remedy should on line delivery fail, for any number of reasons,pales in comparison to Commerzbank.

I am such a low life. I slimy limp worm. I swore to myself, I would never again, but at 19$ silver, meh, I just cant sell it, not even to feed the kids. Woe Woe is me. Woe Woe is me. I have been untrue to myself, untrue to my own word, untrue to my creed, untrue to my heart, in this mad mad word, and no one, not a soul, will Catch My fall. I have sacrificed my principles. Damn those damn kids screaming, "Im hungry!!" constantly. It finally got to me. I am weak, I know it now, and a miserable lying ass wretch. Call me a no good lying bastard, I deserve it. I know you all will never forgive me for it. Woe is me, Woe is me, not shred of backbone, not an ounce of courage, not a twit of righteousness. Call me a farcical clown, a back stabber to the cause. Call be a traitor to everything we hold dearly. I feel so ashamed of myself, suicide is contemplated. Good bye cruel world, if I were not such a cowardly snake to do the right and honorable thing. Good bye my noble friends. I know you all will shun me and turn your backs to me, for ever more. I gave in, and capitulated to dark evil forces enslaving and exploiting. I will be just another enslaved HO, like millions of my countrymen. I deserved to be burn in effigy and in hell for all eternity. I went to penthouse suite this day, over looking this devils playground for miles and miles and miles, to tender the offer, to satin himself and his black angles, to allow me to rejoin the devil worshipers. I promised and swore I would be greedy and evil. I should be stoned to death at the turdville central park, or hung high from the gibbets of true believing stalwarts of honesty and fair play and honest money, of self-reliance and self-respect, of which I surely have none left. Woe is me, Woe is me. There is no salvation for my corrupt, evil and foul deed and act I did this day, traveling to a notorious den of those members of that most despicable profession, applying for admission, to that self-centered cult of greed and wickedness. I should be disbarred and banned forever from TFMR for life, as, I know it would be just. I cant not even come to you all asking that you all to forgive me or show even the slightest amount of pity upon me. I applied for a 500K Esq job today, which means next year, I will be forceably required to surrender 120K$ to that totalitarian fascist cesspool in DC. I am damned.

I have the time so I will sing yeah
I'm just a boy but I will win yeah
Lost song of lovers fellow travelers yeah
Leave me sad and hollow out of words

It could happen to you so think for youreself

If I should stumble
Catch my fall yeah
If I should stumble
Catch my fall
Catch my fall
If I should stumble
Catch my fall
If I should stumble

I've traveled and unwound my own truth yeah
I've laid my head on the rock of youth yeah
i've trusted and then broken my own word
Just to keep me free in this mad, mad word

It could happen to you so think for youreself

If I should stumble
Catch my fall yeah
If I should stumble
Catch my fall
Catch my fall

It could happen to you so think for youreself

If I should stumble won't yoc catch my fall yeah
If I should stumble catch my fall yeah
If I should stumble would you catch my fall
If I should stumble catch my fall

What is claimed is:
1. An applicant for drafting a patent application claiming an invention by an inventor, the invention described in a disclosure, the patent application for filing in a patent office, the applicant comprising:
a human comprising a head comprising a nose, a pair of ears, a pair of eyes, and a brain comprising a neuro net burned for at least thirty years,
clothes worn upon the human, and
a briefcase transported by the human for transporting the disclosure of the invention.
2) The applicant of claim 1, wherein the clothes comprise:
a suit consisting of color matching pants and jacket; a pair of shoes; a shirt; and a tie, wherein, the suit, pair of shoes, tie, and shirt have different respective colors when the human was previously employed as an engineer.
3) The applicant of claim 2, wherein the clothes further comprise,
reading glasses for correcting vision of the pair of eyes, the reading glasses worn aligned to the nose and the pair of ears for near field vision, the reading glasses angularly displaced from the ears and aligned to the nose and the head for far field vision when the human was previously employed as an engineer.
4) The applicant of claim 3, wherein the briefcase comprises,
a note pad for taking written notes during interviews of the inventor being an author of the disclosure, the written notes recording written data authored by the human for generating the patent application, and
a computer embedding a MicroSoft Word word processing program, and PhotoShop and Canvas graphics programs, the computer comprising a laptop keyboard, the computer programmed for emulating an AT keyboard on the laptop keyboard and for emulating a WordStar word processing program by the MicroSoft Word word processing program,
wherein: the disclosure comprises printed hard copy and duplicate soft copy, the printed hard copy comprising graphic images and printed text, the duplicate soft copy comprising text files and graphics files for computer manipulation; the human generates hand drawings from the graphic images, the human further marking up the graphic images into marked up drawings; and, the neuro net is for integrating together the text files and the written data into a soft data file using the emulated WordStar word processing program and is for coverting the hand drawings, the marked up drawings, and the graphic files into soft patent drawings using the PhotoShop and Canvas graphics programs, the human integrating the soft data file and the soft patent drawings in the computer into the patent application for communications to and review by the inventor, the human further for printing and communicating the patent application for filing in the patent office for securing patent protection of the invention.

As I was perusing BRICS related webpages - July 15 meeting; came across this - thought it was an interesting take on Ukraine by a Russian in an article about BRICS cohesion

“Rather, it is due to objective reality and current global economic and political trends. Set against the backdrop of the culmination of a series of economic and political cycles, the Ukrainian crisis is only an indicator, not a catalyst for change in the global paradigm,” said Ontoyev.

The joint statement issued by BRICS members at The Hague summit at the end of March this year was the first step in establishing a coherent foreign policy for the group. China, India, Brazil, and South Africa expressed their sympathy regarding the historical aspects of the situation in Crimea and underscored their opposition to the sanctions leveled against Russia.
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines - http://rbth.com/international/2014/05/27/building_brics_more_integration_or_expansion_36679.html)

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